The present invention relates generally to a gatling gun and more specifically it relates to an improved feeder/delinker for a gatling gun.
A gatling gun is an automatic machine gun that was originally invented by R. J. Gatling in 1862. The galling gun and designs derived from it have been further developed over the years by numerous organizations such as General Electric Company and continue to be important weapons for military applications. This type of gun is well known to those skilled in the art and some examples can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 125,563 (R. J. Gatling); U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,128 (Hoyt, Jr.); U.S. Pat. No. 9,791,241 (Rowe, et al.).
Modern gatling guns typically fire belted ammunition comprising for example 7.62 mm rounds or 5.56 mm rounds, have a rotary barrel assembly comprised of several barrels, an electric drive motor to rotate the barrels through their firing position and a feeder/delinker to remove the ammunition from the belt and deliver it to the barrel assembly for firing. While modern gatling guns have shown to be generally a reliable weapon they all, from time to time, are susceptible to jamming. The delinker is the most problematic component of the gun and many times jamming can be attributed to malfunctions in the delinker. One such malfunction can be attributed to a self locking condition that can occur between the push rods and the push rod guide in the delinker. The push rods move longitudinally in slots in the push rod guide and experience forces normal to this direction during actuation of the push rods. If the normal force on the push rod multiplied by the coefficient of friction exceeds the longitudinal force on the push rod the rod will not move and be locked in place. Materials that have sufficient strength to handle the forces in the guide and push rod do not usually have desirable friction properties. This is particularly problematic when the cam angle of the push rod drive surface is too steep. The prior art has relied on lubrication to try to solve this problem however if the lubrication becomes insufficient the frictional forces can increase beyond the threshold for locking and the delinker will jam.
There remains a need for an apparatus and method for eliminating this locking condition to improve the reliability of a feeder/delinker for a gatling gun.
Those of skill in the art will appreciate the example embodiments of the present invention which addresses the above needs and other significant needs the solution to which are discussed hereinafter.